Testing the limits of an unsolicited invitation

NBC

By Adam Marcus
Retraction Watch
April 21, 2017

John McCool, a freelance medical editor and big “Seinfeld” fan, knew the unsolicited invitation from Urology & Nephrology Open Access Journal to submit a paper was unscrupulous. The journal has been labeled “predatory,” meaning it trolls researchers for articles then demands high fees to publish the papers they submit, without actually doing any quality control. So McCool decided to troll right back.

He sent in a bogus paper relating the plight of a 37-year-old man with “uromycitisis” — the phony syndrome Jerry Seinfeld invents — as a way to dodge a citation for urinating in public. The authors of the report included Dr. Martin van Nostrand, Kramer’s physician alter ego. McCool also threw in a reference to one G.L. Costanza and the Arthur Vandelay Urological Research Institute.